To All You Haters!!

David Cook won American Idol. Enough Said.

Ear Infections-Yuck!

Yes it has been confirmed by a medical professional that I now have an inner ear infection. Yipee! How fun. Fortunately it doesn't hurt that bad, but I don't think I trust medicine at all. I am tired of medicine not working. I guess that's a side effect of I.C. My meds don't cure it, it just makes it feel better. The upside of this is that I got to meet A.C. Green yesterday (former NBA basketball player) and because he was outside all day yesterday and he looks like a lobster. That's not really nice because I should feel sorry for him, but he does look like a lobster.

MMM MMM Good. Campbell's Got Nothing On This.

Baked Potato Soup I.C. Style

Got a craving for baked potato soup or any kind of soup at all? Try this. It's MMM MMM good.

Ingredients:
4 Baked Russet Potatoes
5 TBSP of reduced fat cream cheese
4 Cups of chicken broth (Imagine Organic Chicken Stock is good as well as Meijer Organic Chicken Broth. Imagine doesn't have extra spices added)
1 TBSP garlic powder
1 TBSP onion powder
1 TBSP basil
(all spices can be added to taste, but do not add salt since the chicken stock is usually pretty salty.)

Directions:
1. Scrub potatoes and halve them. Wrap in foil and bake for about 45 minutes at 350ish. Cut into good sized chunks.
2. Put a little bit of the chicken stock in a soup pot on stove top on medium/low heat and put the cream cheese in. Melt cream cheese until smooth. Add a little bit of chicken stock until cream cheese is mixed with chicken stock. Repeat step until cream cheese is mixed smoothly with chicken stock without clumps (it will clump if you add the cream cheese all at once into four cups of chicken stock-like I made it)
3. Add spices while cream cheese melts.
4. Stir every 10 minutes or so on a low heat for about an hour.

It is really good if you make it the night before and let the flavors meld in the fridge overnight.

Let me tell you if you have been craving soup and can't eat the canned stuff or eat any other kind of soup because it has onions, tomatoes, and all the other stuff you can't eat-this is a good substitution. And if you can eat Ham that would probably be really good too in it too. Yeah it pretty much rocks (If I don't say so myself).

Bob Dylan-Major Disrespect

I am not sure if anyone watched Idol tonight and saw Jason Castro's version of "Mr. Tambourine Man". I actually enjoyed the song and was FINALLY glad someone had the guts to sing Bob Dylan. He was not in the skill or caliber of Dylan, but I thought it was pretty good-except hey Jason it's:

"In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you."

Though he did get the next part right:

"Though I know that evenin's empire has returned into sand,
Vanished from my hand,
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping.
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet,
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming."

Anyway the disrespect was shown during the three judges comments. At least on his previous song they said, "I like Marley" or something like that. They did not give Jason any comments like that for Bob Dylan. The audacity.

I Have What??? The Most Embarrassing Dr.'s Visit EVER.

So I have felt like I have had water clogged in my ears for about two weeks now. My ears did not hurt, I just couldn't ear anything out of one ear. Friday night my ear started hurting and with our anniversary being next week I wanted to make sure I got it checked out so I didn't have an ear infection while we were on vacation. We decided to go to the urgent care center, figuring no one would be there because of the Derby and we were right.

The nurses and the doctor were really nice. I made John Mark go back with me because I hate going to the doctor alone (I am not sure why, but my mom used to always go in with me when I was a kid). It turned out it was a good thing that he went in with me because we were there for about an hour.

The doctor takes one look at my ears and says, "Mrs. Ear Wax" and "Q-Tip" user. WHAT? Well that is what I was thinking. I religiously clean my ears out daily (or so I thought) with Q-Tips. It turns out that doing what your mother told you was not a good thing in this case. What the Q-Tip does is push wax back into your ear and if you have been doing it for several years it can be a good way to get water behind it and give you an infection (which is why I wasn't able to get the water out by myself). I was so embarassed and John Mark was in hysterics.

What happened next was even better. They had to clean my ears out first before they could really see what was wrong with my ear. They put this little plastic spicket thing in your ear and through a long tube gush water into your ear so it will get behind the wax and flush it out. Trust me folks, this is not my idea of fun. It was extremely uncomfortable and painful. I went ahead and had them do both ears since I was paying for it (well Humana actually was because I have already met my deductible for the year). It turns out I have swimmer's ear and I don't even swim anymore!!

The doctor said I should use, get this, either olive, vegetable or baby oil once ever 7-10 days in my ear. I would stop it up with a cotton ball overnight and then the oil would absorb the wax and move the wax out when you get water or soap in your ear. She also told me I should throw away my Q-Tips.

So we went to Walgreens that night to get my ear drops and crisis number two happens. John Mark spills the $130.00 ear drops all over the floor. I was in panic mode, knowing Humana wouldn't pay for another bottle unless a certain amount of time past. He felt terrible. We called Walgreens and they suggested having the doctor write a different prescription for a different kind of drops...which is exactly what happened (though the new drops were only 30 something dollars and I have to use them twice as much for longer, but it's better than nothing).

Bye, Bye Hair

So I did it. I got like six inches of my hair cut off today. I think I like it but they put way too much product in it. I will post a picture soon. I don't think it is really drastic but it is different.

Tonight is the big night. The Artist's Cafe. I am really excited about it. We set up last night and I am quite pleased with my pieces that I did for this year's show. It would be pretty cool if I sold I painting, but I am not getting my hopes up.

Another exciting note is I have been doing Pilates every day since Monday (except Thursday) and have been lifting weights and I weighed myself this morning and let's just say my determination as paid off. One of my favorite healthy I.C. meals is:

Romaine Lettuce
Cut up carrots
Feta cheese

Dressing:
1/4 C cottage cheese
1/2 TBSP Olive Oil
Onion powder
Garlic poweder
Oregano
Basil

Yum...

And because I am off I went to rent movies at my local video store. I was really surprised, but not really. Because of Redbox and Netflix all of the videos around have been closing. I wasn't that upset because I got out with nine dvds and four vhs tapes for 32.00. Let's just say anyone who knows me knows I love movies and I couldn't pass this deal up.

Anyway, I had better close this. I am watching Gossip Girl and I need to make rice krispies for tonight.

Follow Up to I.C. Sufferer's Worst Nightmare

So I decided to do a feedback to B.J.'s and I got an e-mail today with a long apology and yes, another gift card of $50.00. Yipee!! Not that I could each much there, but their hamburgers are really good, though with $50 I could probably get a steak! Although I think they are pre-seasoned.

I painted for about five hours straight today. I will post pictures of the art show next Friday. I am really looking forward to it.

I watched the "Assassination of Jesse James" last night and we watched "Kite Runner" today. Both movies were kind of melancholy, though the good guy won in the end of "Kite Runner". There were no good guys in the Jesse James' movie though Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck did a really good job.

We played tennis Friday night. We tied...though i am not sure it agreed with my I.C. today, which pretty much sucks, but I am not sure I am ready to give it all up yet.